Candy Free Easter Baskets for Toddlers

Easter is right around the corner, and I’ve been delegated to filling the cheap plastic eggs for our family Easter egg hunt. I love doing this because the kids love it, but I hate filling the eggs with stuff I don’t want my toddlers to consume. So, I went on a hunt of my own – a hunt for alternatives to candy and once I started looking, I found alternatives all around! I thought I’d share some with you. Some of the items are fillers for the plastic eggs and some are items that could easily replace the eggs altogether. We have used a few of these already and they have all been a huge hit. 

Candy Alternatives for your Easter Egg Hunt

I love to fill the eggs – especially when there’s leftover candy that I just can’t let go to waste – but telling my kids to go find eggs that I then have to regulate or deal with sugar highs? No thank you. That’s why I’ve found other items to fill those eggs with. Helpful hint: get the big eggs for these so that it’s not only easier to distinguish between but also so you’re not praying the eggs don’t pop open before they’re found. 

• Annie’s Gummy Bunny Fruit Snacks – you can also make your own gummies.
• Annie’s Bunny Crackers – they’re small and bunny shaped! Win-win!
• Yogurt melts – I love the Amara brand Organic Smoothie Melts I find at our Costco.
• Cereal pieces (use a small bag if need be)
• Healthy lollipops (check out Zollipops!)
• Small bubbles
• Small playdough containers 
• Homemade playdough – putting it in a small bag would keep it dryer longer
• Small animal figurines
• Small bug figurines
• Stickers: buy a sheet or two and cut them out to fit inside. 
• Temporary Tattoos: what kid doesn’t love those tattoos? You can even find temporary tattoos with Bible verses on them – what a great way to help them memorize a verse!

Although I love to fill the eggs, it’s even better when I find egg shaped items that can replace the fillable ones. It’s easy to just purchase them and set them aside for the hunt. I mean, sometimes I just don’t have the time to fill 100 eggs. 

Alternatives to the Fillable Eggs:

• Egg shaped chalk – I found mine at Target and they came in their own carrying case too.
• Crayola Egg Shaped Crayons – these are great for Littles to develop their fine motor skills.  
• Kinetic Sand Eggs – These were my son’s first experience with kinetic sand and I wanted to see how he liked it before making a huge sensory bin with it. He loved it but learn from my mistake – don’t let him dump the sand in a bucket of water.. It doesn’t dry out. Oh toddlers. 
• Play-doh eggs – who doesn’t love play-doh!?
• Color and shape matching egg toy – I found one at the Arc for my son’s first Easter egg hunt and he still plays with them two years later. I love that it comes with its own egg carton and can teach shapes and colors. Throughout the year, we use them to play hide and seek. 
• Egg shakers from Hape – These are a high quality toy you can add to your music collection after Easter. If you can’t find the Hape Eggs (I found mine at Target), you can find wooden egg shakers on Amazon.
• Egg-cellent Experiment Eggs – These may be better suited for older kids and I consider that a win! 
• Dinosaur eggs – I kept the best for last. These are a great alternative since you can paint them before the hunt and play with them afterward. Using these eggs with my 2 year old and his older cousins (ages 6-12) kept the fun going for hours after the hunt was over. 

Putting on an Easter Egg hunt for Bigs and Littles: 

We always get together at my mother-in-law’s house for Easter with the cousins who are 5-8 years older than my boys. Although it can be challenging to put on an egg hunt with varying ages, it is possible. 

Option 1: Separate areas

You can designate separate areas of the hunt for the different age groups (i.e. littles on the patio and bigs in the yard) and if you chose to do this, be sure to prep your eggs and keep them separated by age groups. 

Option 2: More time

You can also vary the start times so the littles have more time to find the eggs – little legs you know. 

Option 3: Color coding

Lastly, you can color code the eggs (i.e blue and yellow eggs for the Littles, all other colors for the Bigs). If you do it this way, you may consider giving Littles their baskets with example eggs in them already to help them understand what they are looking for. 

Option 4: Free for all 

Send everyone out with all the eggs scattered around, old fashioned style, and let whatever happens happen. If you think your Little will get upset easily because they didn’t find as many eggs as the Bigs or they were going for an egg but a big got to it first, this may not be the option for you. 

I personally like the first option best since it allows me to use different eggs (candy for Bigs and others for my Littles) but it does require some forethought and organization. Regardless of what you use and how you do it, egg hunts with friends and family will be events your children will likely remember forever. They are totally worth the time and effort and it is possible to do them without the cheap junk or sugary treats. 

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